In: Operations Management
Many countries have universal healthcare, what if the United States followed suit:
How would the health care be financed?
Would there be any limits to put into place?
Who will be in charge of monitoring performance and quality?
Will there be any rationing of care or ability for experimental treatment/ drugs and cosmetic surgery?
1. The universal health care in the US can be financed by the federal government by firstly analysing the health care requirements of different States and allocating health care budget to each of the States based on the health care requirements of those States. Then the health care spends of different States have to be studied and it should be ascertained whether the allocated budget is sufficient to meet the requirements or not. In case there is any gap, re-financing needs to be done.
2. Yes limits are required to be put into place considering the health care requirements and spends of each of the States. The allocation of health care budget to each State must be in coherence with the budget requirements and limits must be put into place if the State has exceeded its health care spend. In such a scenario, State has to further finance it's remaining health care requirements of that year.
3. The Governors of individual States would be responsible for monitoring performance and quality of healthcare of different States. The execution of healthcare spends and further allocation of budget must be controlled by the Governor of that State. Moreover effective performance and quality of healthcare imparted to the patients must also be monitored by the Governor in order to ascertain that the system is working properly.
4. Yes, there will be rationing of care or ability for experimental treatment/ drugs and cosmetic surgery because these treatments are considered to be extravagant spends and do not fulfill basic healthcare needs of patients. These treatments must not be given priority as treatment and spend on these must be rationed or restricted. The resources must first be allocated to primary or basic health care requirements and then certain portion of budget should be allocated to these treatments.